Inside the JW Marriott Hotel Kolkata

A first look at the city's newest luxury hotel

Kolkata’s newest luxury property, the JW Marriott Hotel Kolkata, is located just down the road from the craziness of Park Circus, on JBS Haldane Avenue. If you’re travelling for work with meetings in different parts of the city, or an event planner looking for a central location, you couldn’t possibly do better. The Marriott Kolkata is ideal, not just for business meetings but also for weddings, events and conferences. For one, it has the city’s largest ballroom (over 38,000sqft of events space) and a video wall (32ftx18ft), which they claim is the largest in the country.

Spaces like The Living Room offer privacy to conduct the most important of negotiations away from prying eyes and ears.

A room at the JW Marriott Hotel Kolkata

The rooms:Most of the hotel’s 281 rooms and suites, fall in the base category, which should make any event planner happy. There’s no skimping on space—all rooms are 428sqft or more, and come with standard mod-cons: springy beds, bath tubs, make-up mirrors and branded toiletries. A little bit of local culture, too, makes its way in through the frequent use of the kalki motif, most prominently displayed on headboards.

Food at JW Marriott Hotel Kolkata

The food:Considering Bengal’s love for fruits of the sea, it’s no surprise that the hotel lists dishes like the chingri macher malai (pictured above) as one of their signatures, served at the all-day diner JW Kitchen. In fact, finally here’s a hotel that’s embracing all things local and tossing the regular mish-mash sounding hotel menu in the garbage. Enter local jhaal muri vendors and chai-wallahs, to spice up your evening snack. For the mains, there’s Tangra-style chilly chicken, fried hakka noodles and a range of Bengali and Marwari dishes that might actually delude you into thinking you’re not staying at yet another chain hotel.

The front desk at the hotel.

Experiences:Besides bringing the city’s culinary experiences to the table, the hotel’s also tied up with Kolkata Walks to take guests on customised trips of the city–to the old spice market, through Tangra, home to the city’s ethnic Chinese population, and to cast light on how the city’s Marwari community has shaped the city. And it all starts when you walk in to warm welcome and a cup of hibiscus tea.